The Past Always Comes Back
by Gandalf3213
Summary: ROMEO SHOW Louis's father is out of jail and escaped his parole officer. When he goes to find Louis, will the Miller family be enough to stop him from finishing what he started years ago?
1. Finding

**I don't own Romeo, 'kay?**

_The family is supposed to be a haven in a heartless world. Christopher Lasch_

"Louis, you got a letter," Gary handed over an official-looking envelope.

Louis took it, keeping one eye on the video game. If Romeo got shot, he'd win. Then he saw the letter, and started breaking out in a cold sweat.

It was from the state. He had gotten four other letters looking exactly like this, informing him that he'd be moved, once again, to another house. _Please, no, let me stay_. He didn't notice everyone staring at him as he opened the letter with shaking hands.

"What is it bro?" Romeo had seen the envelope. He wasn't stupid. He was still hoping that it didn't mean what he thought it meant.

Louis looked up from the letter, horror-struck. "My ― my dad's out of jail."

Romeo let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Louis wasn't leaving. Not yet at least. "That's cool."

"No it's not." Louis looked frightened, more so then when he had thought that the letter was sending him away. "It's not cool at all."

He sat down on a chair, looking at the letter and noticing that his hands were shaking. He wanted to make sure he'd read it right. He had. His dad was on parole. He was requesting to see him. He wouldn't let him.

"What's the matter, Louis?" Gary was next to him. The noise from the video game was gone a second before Romeo sat down across the table. "I didn't even know your father was in jail."

"Yeah, he was put in jail after he ― did some stuff to me and my mom. And now he wants to see me." He felt hot tears of anger and hatred flow down his cheeks. His hands were now shaking so violently it threatened to tear the paper in half.

Romeo shook his head. He was amazed that Louis had been living with them for over a year and he still knew so little about his past. "I'll tell dad. Don't worry Louis, he won't get within hundred yards of this house." The way Louis was acting scared him. A lot.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Louis sounded tired and disbelieving. "We'll try that." He looked out the window, half-expecting to see a man hiding there in the bushes.

Knowing his father, that was very possible.

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	2. Crying

**I own nothing**

_To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. _

Louis didn't eat much at dinner. He could feel most of the family staring at him throughout the meal and he knew they were all wondering the same thing.

As soon as the meal was over, Louis went upstairs as quickly as he could without looking too conspicuous. He reached into a worn backpack lying under the bed. It held the few things he had had since he was six. Since he was put in foster care.

He took out a photo album. The cover was leather with no printing on it. The first page was a picture of Louis and his mom and dad on Louis's fifth birthday.

He looked at the man in the picture, the one standing right behind him with a hand on his shoulder, and wondered if he looked the same now. In the picture, he was nice-looking, with brown hair cut close to his head and clear gray eyes.

Louis looked at the picture for another moment before throwing the album across the room, hearing it hit the door with a dull thud. He couldn't look at him anymore. The door opened the same moment the book hit the ground.

Romeo walked in, his eyebrows drawn together in worry. "Hey bro," he said, bending down to pick up the book. "You mind filling me in on what's happening around here?" he handed the album back to Louis who thumbed through it idly.

He looked up at Romeo, his eyes meeting his like he was weighing something. He came to a decision. "I told you that I've been in four foster families, right? I've been in the system since I was about six. Did mom and dad ever tell you why they took me? It's listed in my profile."

Romeo squirmed uncomfortably. The family usually ignored the fact the Louis was a foster kid. That he wasn't really theirs at all. Now it was staring at him right in the face. "No, they never said."

Louis looked away, out the window, staring at something that Romeo couldn't possibly see. "They said it was neglect ― that was the formal listing. Wasn't too far off, I was living out of trash cans by then, but it wasn't the whole reason." Romeo made a small noise like a spitting cat and Louis looked at him.

"Neglect? Of a six year old?" Romeo was angry now. He couldn't believe that anyone would do that.

Louis looked at him with a smile that was almost...pitying? "You have it good, Ro. You don't really know the real world. Anyway, it gets worse."

"My dad had a temper. He'd sometimes hit be with a magazine or newspaper, it wasn't hard but it stung. My mom got the force of it. I think she'd have left if it weren't for me. Then one night…" he swallowed hard. "One night he went too far. He was in jail for paralyzing my mother."

Romeo was dumbfounded. "You're mom's paralyzed?" It was something he couldn't picture. Happy, fun-loving Louis having a paralyzed mother in a hospital somewhere and a father in jail.

"No, she's dead." Louis sighed, looking away from Romeo again. "Died in a hospital somewhere. Alone." Tears dripped down his face and he brushed them away impatiently. He didn't deserve to cry.

Romeo couldn't take it any more. He engulfed his brother in a hug and the two of them laid there for a long time, not moving, barely breathing, and crying.

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	3. Hearing

**I don't own it, you know.**

_Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go by any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material. F. Scott Fitzgerald_

Life continued. How could that have happened? Louis thought that the entire world should have stopped. Didn't they know that his dad was out of jail? Didn't they know that he wanted to kill Louis?

Actually, nobody knew that somebody wanted to kill Louis. He hadn't told the Millers anything about what his father had said that night. Anything about the blows raining down on him or the fire. About being dragged out of there and put in a hospital. They might understand if he told them.

Then again, they might not.

Louis could not go back to being treated differently. Being talked to like he was an invalid. Less then human. He'd been through seven years of that when he made the mistake of telling people about his past.

So now he didn't say anything about it.

Activities came and went and the small hodge-podge family was the same. Louis felt eyes on him every once in a while. Scrutinizing him more then the others when he walked in the door. But it wasn't anything big, and they never mentioned his father again until a week after he'd gotten the letter.

"Louis." He looked up at Angelina from his dinner, a smile on his face. When he saw her expression it slipped. "Louis, we got a restraining order for your dad."

Silence. Louis felt the silence pounding against his ears. Louder then any words could have been. He swallowed past the lump in his throat. "Really?" he said, trying desperately to keep his voice neutral. He could sense all eyes on him. Romeo put a hand on his shoulder, for which he was immensely grateful.

"Yes, so you shouldn't worry anymore." Jodi looked at him peculiarly, almost as if she were about to cry.

Louis tried to smile, though it came out more like a grimace. "Thanks guys. This means a lot to me."

The dinner continued without interruption. Louis found himself looking out windows every couple of seconds because he knew, even if no one else did.

A restraining order meant nothing to his dad. He had already tried to kill him once. He was going to try again.

And this time his mom wasn't there to stop him.

This time, Louis might die.

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